


fierce lovers and battle warriors

by Wildspace



Series: 911 lone star week. [3]
Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: (until he's injured), Blood and Injury, Carlos is also a badass, Grace is a life savior, M/M, Paul is mentioned but barely, TK being a badass, TK has an EMT qualification
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:20:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24062755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wildspace/pseuds/Wildspace
Summary: This is definitely not how TK planned to spend his day off. Not with his boyfriend’s life hanging by a thread.
Relationships: Carlos Reyes/TK Strand
Series: 911 lone star week. [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1718455
Comments: 9
Kudos: 111
Collections: 9-1-1 Lone Star Week





	fierce lovers and battle warriors

**Author's Note:**

> What do you mean it was supposed to be posted three days ago? Not it was not. (Yes, it definitively was. And I'm sorry for the delay.) Anyway, I had so much fun writing this, and I'm sorry in advance for hurting Carlos again. I promise I love him (like so freaking much), but writing angsty thing for my otp where I end up hurting one or both of them is one of my favorite thing to do. (I'm a sucker for angst with a happy ending. Sorry, not sorry). Also, there is probably some medical inaccuracy and I'm sorry in advance.
> 
> (written for day 4 of Lone Star week.)

This is definitely not how TK planned to spend his day off.

Not with his boyfriend’s life hanging by a thread.

* * *

They spend their morning in bed, rolling in the sheets and kissing warm skin on each other. They have plans to go have lunch in a new restaurant in town that just opens a few days ago. Owen recommended it to them because it’s somewhere trendy, full of healthy or vegetarian options. Somewhere whose screaming their names, he says. (More like, screaming _Owen’s_ name, but they say yes anyway.) A few days later, when they finally have a day off that matches, they go there for lunch. The place is nice, with wooden floors, big windows, and pastel-painted walls. The service is fine, the food is good, their table is in a remote corner (which is a big advantage when they can’t keep their hands off each other). Everything is going well. Until it doesn’t.

* * *

All Hell breaks loose.

One second, they are laughing at something, the next, the floor of the restaurant is collapsing. Customers are screaming in horror, some of them are falling in the hole the collapsed ground has created, others are trying to escape from the restaurant. TK and Carlos are out of their chairs the moment the floor starts falling. Lucky for them, the area their table is in has not been impacted. They exchange a look of concern because a collapsed floor is never a good thing. You can walk on unstable ground without knowing it, and soon, you will be three meters below. They have to do something, even if they are not supposed to work today. After a silent conversation, they move to do what they do best; saving lives and protecting people. On his way to an injured woman, TK asks one of the customers to call 911 and tell them what happened. He doesn’t way for an answer, because the woman is still injured, and she needs his help. “Hello, I’m TK. I’m a firefighter with the 126, I’m going to look at your head okay?”, he explains to her while grabbing one of the clean napkins there is on the table. There is a gash on her forehead whose bleeding badly. TK doesn’t know what happened, but by the painting laying on the ground, he assumes the canvas felt on her when the floor collapsed. He puts the napkin on the woman’s head, pressing on it to make the blood flow stop. “Do you feel dizzy?” The woman is pulling faces when TK presses a little too hard on his head for her liking, but answers no in the end. He nods, then tells her to keep pressing the napkin on her head for him. Then, he goes to help the next victim. In the corner of his eyes, he can see Carlos talking with an employee of the restaurant. They seem to be looking for a way to go down in the hole to help the people that felt when the floor collapsed. He doesn’t have time to linger, because someone is calling for help in the kitchen. He finds a man bleeding heavily from his leg. There is a bloody knife abandoned on his right. A waiter is by his side, pressing an apron on the wound to try and stop the blood from flowing. It doesn’t really work and TK is pretty sure the femoral artery has been cut. He needs to do something or the guy will die before help arrived. “We need to put a tourniquet of his leg,” he says. He asks the waiter to give him his belt and to go found something to help tighten it around the wound. He puts his hands on the apron instead, putting pressure on it until the young man comes back with his belt and a spatula. TK immediately starts doing a tourniquet on the other man’s leg, smiling a little when the blood finally stops flowing. “Alright, that’s good. It should do it until help is here. We are going to take you to the front of the restaurant, where it’s safer, okay?” TK and the waiter grab his arms and put them on his neck so the other man can lean on them. Five minutes and a lot of painful groans later, the injured man is sitting safely in one of the booths at the front of the restaurant. TK asks the waiter to stay with him and keeps an eye on the wound for him. _If it starts bleeding again, go find me_ , he says before going towards the hole on the ground. Carlos and the waitress he saw talking earlier apparently found a way to go down, because there is a ladder in the hole now. They secure it the best way they can, and TK can see them working on the victims who fell when the floor collapses. TK doesn’t think before he goes help them, because it’s what he does; he saves people for a living.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, help still isn’t here. The woman who first called them has explained to TK that the dispatcher said there is a massive fire up north of the town, so the help may be delayed. TK knows how it is, understands that the priority depends on the urgency of the emergency, but he wishes the firefighters were there already. Down here in the hole, it’s a mess. Some persons are badly injured, over are trapped under pieces of concrete. The lucky ones who are in good shape are trying to help the ones who aren’t, following TK’s and Carlos’ orders. Everything goes as good as it can until someone is yelling “watch out”. TK turns his head so fast he can hear it crack. Some pieces of the floor are falling, like a second hit during an earthquake. Time seems to be slowing down as TK can do nothing but watches as Carlos pushes a woman out of the way. He ends up taking the brunt of the debris, getting stuck under a big piece of concrete. TK is by his sides in a second. “Don’t move, it’s okay. We are going to remove this debris from your torso.” He has his game face on, because he doesn’t want his boyfriend to freak out, but he fears some damaged on Carlos’ ribs. TK tells a man to help him move the piece of concrete out of the way, so he can look for injuries on his boyfriend’s body. The motion makes pain washes all over Carlos’ face, and TK lets apologies flow from his mouth like a freaking waterfall. “Do it,” Carlos says through gritted teeth. TK does as he’s ordered, and falls on his knees next to the cop as soon as the debris is out of the way. “I’m pretty sure one of my ribs broke and pierced my lung,” Carlos manages to say through the pain. It’s like he’s been stabbed in the chest with a knife. TK can only agree with him when he puts his ear close to his mouth and hears the wheezing breathing. It’s bad. A pneumothorax is never good, even in a hospital. He knows he needs to clear out the air in Carlos’ lungs, but he’s starting to freak out. He _can’t_ lose Carlos. He just can’t. His boyfriend is not looking at him anymore, he’s focusing on breathing through the pain with his eyes closed. “It’s going to be okay,” TK tells Carlos. Again and again. Like he’s trying to persuade himself, like a _prayer_. 

A hand on his shoulder makes him jump in surprise, breaking through his panic state. TK tears his gaze away from his boyfriend’s body to meet the eyes of the waitress who served them earlier. “What do you need to save him?” She has a determined look on her face like she’s willing to do anything to help him save Carlos. She doesn’t appear injured, so TK asks her if she can find a big needle, a straw, and a cell phone still working. The young woman is back so fast TK doesn’t have time to fully break down. “Here,” she says while giving him what he asked for. “Can I do something else to help you?” TK tells her she did everything she can, and to go see if anyone else needs help. She disappears with a small smile, and he’s left to deal with Carlos’ life hanging in his hands. He takes the phone between his shaking fingers, and deals 911, listening to the tones until a familiar voice greets him with the habitual message. “Grace? Grace, is that you?” If it’s really Judd’s wife on the other side on the phone, it’s going to be okay. It has to be. “TK?! What’s wrong? What happened?” It’s definitely Grace. TK feels a tear rolling down his cheek, and he’s surprised to realize he has been about to crying. He’s not the one in pain, he can’t cry right now. “The floor of the restaurant we were at collapsed, Carlos has a pneumothorax, I need to empty the air in his lung, and I’m freaking out because I can’t kill him, I need him to live, I _need_ him, okay?” In his ears, Grace is telling him to breath, that it’s going to be okay. She’s going to help him save Carlos, and he’s going to be just fine. She makes him breathe deeply and calmly until he has a clear head again, then she tells him exactly what to do. He does what she says, careful with every little thing he does until Carlos can breathe correctly again. The way his chest widens suddenly makes more tears roll down TK cheek, and he feels like the weight of the world is finally off his shoulders. It’s going to be okay. It’s going to be _just fine_ because Grace is telling him help has arrived at the scene. And TK realizes he can hear Paul’s voice when he stops focusing on Carlos for a second. It’s going to be okay. Carlos is not out of the woods yet, but he’s alive.

( _Carlos is alive._ And breathing becomes a bit easier for TK.)

**Author's Note:**

> (Title is from a poem by Sanober Khan.)


End file.
